The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

This new article from Deadspin proposes a unique system for future NBA drafts. What do you think, good or bad? There are always pros and cons of any system, and this is a unique take that I would have never thought of. I personally like the idea. Opinions?

The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

Grantland obtained a copy of the proposal, which would eliminate the draft lottery entirely and replace it with a system in which each of the 30 teams would pick in a specific first-round draft slot once — and exactly once — every 30 years. Each team would simply cycle through the 30 draft slots, year by year, in a predetermined order designed so that teams pick in different areas of the draft each year. Teams would know with 100 percent certainty in which draft slots they would pick every year, up to 30 years out from the start of every 30-year cycle. The practice of protecting picks would disappear; there would never be a Harrison Barnes–Golden State situation again, and it wouldn’t require a law degree to track ownership of every traded pick leaguewide.

The system is simpler to understand in pictorial form. Below is the wheel that outlines the order in which each team would cycle through the draft slots; the graphic highlights the top six slots in red to show that every team would be guaranteed one top-six pick every five seasons, and at least one top-12 pick in every four-year span:

Mathis2

Put another way: The team that gets the no. 1 pick in the very first year of this proposed system would draft in the following slots over the system's first six seasons: 1st, 30th, 19th, 18th, 7th, 6th. Just follow the wheel around clockwise to see the entire 30-year pick cycle of each team, depending on their starting spoke in Year 1.

The system is designed to eliminate the link between being very bad and getting a high draft pick. There is no benefit at all to being bad under a wheel system like this. If you believe tanking is morally wrong, or that it hurts business by alienating fans and cutting into attendance, this is a system you could get behind.

Re: The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

I posted this at the exact same time as you. I like the idea, but would only want it to go for 10 years instead of 30. Just re-draw every 10 years to change things up, but everyone would still get two top 6 picks in that time span.

Re: Does this new proposal solve tanking for draft picks???

Re: The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

I propose the other thread to be merged with this one.

As to the idea - obviously, it would be attractive to Pacer fans, since historically we have rarely picked from the top draft positions. Making it guaranteed seems like the best of both worlds.

Is it unfair though to the bad teams? The ones who annually get lotto picks but somehow are still stuck in rebuilding mode? My view on it is that those teams remain bad precisely because they're counting on salvation from the draft, that the draft has basically become a crutch for bad GMs. So from my point of view, this kind of change seems like the tough love necessary to weed out bad GMs.

Of course, it's easy to say this when we're enjoying good management ourselves. On a team like say Orlando or Philly, switching to smart new management under the current system seems like it will get them through an accelerated rebuild much faster than in the proposed new system, by tanking for high draft picks. But then there's no guarantee that the smart young GMs in Orl or Phi are actually good at drafting - all we know for sure so far is that they're good at tanking. And then there are the teams like Brooklyn or New York, which prove that you can **** things up pretty bad in the current system as well.

So, I like the proposed new system, but I'm aware that my biases might be coloring my opinion.

Re: The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

I still think you need some kind of weighted system. I'm open to making it less weighted but how is this any better than just putting all the teams in the lottery with equal odds?

What if you are a bad team on a really "bad" part of your cycle picking at the end of the first round? Absolutely no hope for improvement. What if you are the best team in the league and just happen to up for the number 1 pick, I don't like it.

"As a bearded man, i was very disappointed in Love. I am gathering other bearded men to discuss the status of Kevin Love's beard. I am motioning that it must be shaved."

The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Infinite MAN_force For This Useful Post:

Re: Does this new proposal solve tanking for draft picks???

Why not just give the first pick to the team with the best record in the lottery? This way teams will not want to rest players or come up with "injuries" to sideline their best players because they know every win gets them closer to that first overall pick.

Re: Does this new proposal solve tanking for draft picks???

Why not just give the first pick to the team with the best record in the lottery? This way teams will not want to rest players or come up with "injuries" to sideline their best players because they know every win gets them closer to that first overall pick.

Finally a half reasonable idea for something that isn't even a fraction of a problem that people make it out to be.

Re: The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

I don't like it. You'd have teams like the Knicks trading their pick in 2024 this season because that's the year they know they got the first pick. I do like the fact that people have ideas to change the system, but I'm not sure this is the change it needs.

Re: The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

Player from college: See's the Bucks have the 1st pick in 2022, see's the Knicks have the 1st pick in 2023...opts to stay in school an extra year.

That's a very good point. I guess a possible solution would be to add some sort of randomization into the fixed slots. So maybe divide the draft into 5 groups (picks 1-6, 7-12, 13-18, 19-24, 25-30) with each team rotating through those 5 groups in some fashion. Actual draft order is determined by lottery within those groups. It's still gameable to some extent, but I'd argue that the current system is too.

Re: The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

This would kill the league. Tanking is really not that bad. If tanking was such a big deal then Brooklyn and New York would be in the playoffs and Boston and Toronto would have the worst records in the league.

What if someone from a school of business or management school were to ask, How did you do this? How did you get the Pacers turned around? Is there a general approach you've taken that can be summarized?

The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Since86 For This Useful Post:

Re: The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

The only thing I don't like is that as a team you don't have a choice to suck or not depending on how deep the draft is, I mean what if you get the number 1 pick in a crappy draft? then you are screwed for a long time.

I still like my idea of putting 14 balls in a machine like a real lottery, one ball for all 14 teams, the draft lottery could be more exciting if they do it on national TV too.

Re: Does this new proposal solve tanking for draft picks???

Why not just give the first pick to the team with the best record in the lottery? This way teams will not want to rest players or come up with "injuries" to sideline their best players because they know every win gets them closer to that first overall pick.

Bill Simmons proposed something similar. I think the problem with this idea is that it just shifts the tanking. Now the #7/#8 seeds might be tanking to drop into the lottery, then miraculously get better in the lottery tournament.

Re: Does this new proposal solve tanking for draft picks???

Why not just give the first pick to the team with the best record in the lottery? This way teams will not want to rest players or come up with "injuries" to sideline their best players because they know every win gets them closer to that first overall pick.

To go down this path it might actually be better to have a lottery with the lottery weighted towards middle of the pack lottery teams instead of low end lottery teams, and have the lottery go to 5 teams instead of just 3.

My preference though is to just get rid of the lottery all together and just use the simple, you draft position depends on your regular season record and how far you get in the playoffs.

The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Mackey_Rose For This Useful Post:

Re: The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

How does this help the overall league while combating tanking? The point of the draft is to help the worst teams in the league get some better talent. Yes, you are going to have bad teams like the Cavs who pass on Oladipo because they have morons running them, but the overall goal of the draft should be to give the worst teams more talent to help compete and get better.

All this idea does is give the best team chances to get even better which can help create a larger disparity between the bad teams and the good teams. As another poster said can you imagine the scenario where the NBA Champs get the number one overall pick? Do we really want a scenario to happen where the Heat get to add Oladipo or Anthony Davis to their roster just because it their year?

I said this in the other thread, if they insist on fixing a problem that really is not much of a problem why not just go with a simple answer. Just give the team with the best record that is in the lottery the first overall. That encourages teams to play hard, not come up with "injuries" and is just a simple solution.

Re: The NBA's Possible Solution for Tanking: Good-bye to the Lottery, Hello to the Wheel

The point of the draft is to help the worst teams in the league get some better talent.

That's the theory, but does it really work? Why are there so many teams that are perennially in the lotto?

What actually happens is that a bad team hires a good GM, and the good GM uses a combination of tools - including draft picks, trades, and FAs - to get better. High draft picks by themselves don't guarantee anything.

I don't know if this proposal is the one I would 100% back, but definitely the current system needs an overhaul.

I said this in the other thread, if they insist on fixing a problem that really is not much of a problem why not just go with a simple answer. Just give the team with the best record that is in the lottery the first overall. That encourages teams to play hard, not come up with "injuries" and is just a simple solution.

And as I replied in the other thread, this just shifts tanking elsewhere. Teams on the playoff bubble now have an incentive to lose games and "win" the lottery.